UPDATE 4:40PM PST: The AMA has "officially" ended, although a few of us may choose to stick around answering questions! This has been incredibly fun, and all of us enjoyed responding so much. I did a manual count and counted over 350 responses from the AMA participants. Thanks so much for coming with so many great questions!
Riot has 2,500+ employees and contract workers with really cool and valuable jobs: copyright lawyers, space planners, security experts… Most never get to interact with players. We wanna change that. So today's AMA features a number of people who don't normally get to talk to players. Some of these folks are full-time Rioters, and some of them are contract workers. All of them work at Riot Games and are crucial to helping bring you the game(s) you love.
The AMA will be split into two sessions, with the first group joining us from 10:30am–12:30pm PT, and the second group answering questions from 2:30pm–4:30pm PT!
Group 1 (Active 10:30am to 12:30pm PT):
u/The_May0r is the Senior Broadcast Producer for the LCS. He works with the production team and onair casters to tell stories and provide coverage for the LCS teams.
u/RiotToast is a Global Policy Strategist for Global Esports. He works on the Competitive Operations team to help design, implement, and manage Riot's global event structure and competitive ecosystem.
u/RiotAryeila is an Editor for the Tech Department at Riot. She runs the Tech website, supports tech communications, and posts pictures of her pets in work channels daily.
u/RiotVizRT is a Senior VizRT programmer on contract with the LCS. He adds data-driven graphics to the League broadcast, like Baron Power Play, Inhibitor Timers, and live graphs.
u/RiotDavin is Director of Insights for Riot Games. He helps researchers, analysts, and strategists all around Riot study and learn from players so that we can better serve them.
u/Isomalt is a Program Manager on the NA Regional Team. He works with partners to create IRL events, reads a lot of contracts, and started Riot as the Head of Food & Beverage.
u/RiotPubBard is a Production Coordinator on LoL Marketing. He wrangles creative teams, keeps everyone organized, and project manages publishing campaigns (recently, Preseason)
u/jenfolds is a Senior Instructional Designer for the People Team. She creates global learning experiences across a variety of content like feedback, people management, self-awareness, and more—she's also the worst Warwick you've ever met.
u/Riot_Shadowstorm is a Program Manager in Technology Operations. He helps keep the Technology Department running smoothly, leveling up Riot's technologists and improving department processes.
u/RiotTechOps is a Program Manager on the Technology Operations team. She makes learning & career development opportunities a reality for our Rioters in tech. From online curriculum about software testing to a year long class ending in a scary ropes course, she is there making sure these programs go off without a hitch!
u/RiotSafeandSecure is Riot's Director of IT and Security. He handles technical and security stuff for Riot’s non player facing things, is awful at League of Legends, and loves sour gummi worms and lifting weights
u/RiotReleaseMan is Release Manager for Legends of Runeterra. He coordinates and executes all of the release activities that ship Legends of Runeterra to players, is Master in LoR, and absolutely despises Ezreal and Heimer decks.
Group 2 (Active 2:30pm to 4:30pm PT):
u/Eneopa is Senior Quality Assurance Analyst on contract with the Localization Technology team. She helps Riot uphold its quality bar, leads uncertainty study, and drives testing upstream all while climbing the rank ladder as support, and taking care of her dog, Karma.
u/RiotMobility is a Sr. Global Mobility Analyst at Riot. He manages mobility duty and global visa compliance for Riot, including for Worlds and MSI (aka the least sexy job in eSports).
u/RiotLocTech is the manager of the Localization Technology team. Her team builds the tools that enable translation and create the localized/translated builds of Riot's games (97% of players are playing on a localized/translated build. She also used to be the Localization Producer for LoL where she oversaw resolution of bugs affecting non-English builds.
u/superchIoe is Lead Stats Analyst for the LCS. They provide the numbers backing up the LCS, MSI, and Worlds, run the LCS stock industry, and have all the excel tips you could ever need.
u/CloakOfTheBat is Riot's Associate General Counsel, a former top 5-ranked Starcraft player, and the world's tallest lawyer.
u/RiotWolfPack is an entire team of people behind the Player Support website, the tech on the site (like the How Much Have I Spent post) , Hextech Repair Tool, the internal tools that Rioters use to 'Riotize' their accounts, and the tools agents use to help players in Player Support. (So many different tools that work for players, Rioters, agents, etc.) Many of them have been at Riot working in backend tooling for over six years, with two being at Riot for almost nine years, so we can answer a lot more of the questions from those fabled years.
u/RiotTacticalRedPanda is a Graphics Producer for the LCS, MSI, Worlds, and ASE. She brings the LED stage and venue screens at events to life – think opening ceremony graphics, champion select effects, and team branded looks.
u/dzareth is Strategic Advisory lead for League of Legends. He oversees a number of strategic functions, like analytics, revenue approach, expansion, strategic financial and data. He also basically lives at Riot's Bilgewater cafe.
The whole idea behind this thread is that there are **way more types of jobs in the games industry than you might’ve realized**, and so if you’re interested in one day working at Riot or at a place like Riot, feel free to ask the folks listed above about their experiences! Tagging the person you’d like to hear from will help them find your question.
This can be answered by anyone, but I was looking at internships at Riot Games this summer, and I noticed there were none in a management or human resource position. I’m currently a junior in college studying business management, and it has been my dream to work for Riot. Are there any positions available or that will be available in the future for that type of role?
Why is Aatrox so cool?
How often do people ask you about nerfs or bug fixes?
u/The_Cactopus What’s the least favorite part of your job? Like the mundane part of it and/or the most taxing part
/u/RiotAryeila
As the official Queen of Puns and Grammar at Riot Games, how does it feel to have a platform to share your love of the highest form of humor with the masses?
In the same vein, which pun are you the most proud of? Alternatively, which Champion Spotlight video has the most puns that you’re proud of?
Also, what do you actually do? I know we’re on the same team, but I don’t understand big tech words. Help me dumb.
Question for /u/RiotDavin
Can you give an overview of your job? What tasks and responsibilities you have, an average day-to-day ect?
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u/RiotLocTech I don’t know if this has already been answered, but is there a particular reason why the client doesn’t allow every language in all regions? Also, how much work would it be to make voices language independent from text language? Have a nice day!
200+ years of experience: how valuable is it?
How many employees are currently working on an MMO 🤔🤔🤔
I think this would be a question for u/RiotDavin; how hard is it to reconcile perceived impact of changes, and the actual statistical impact?
An example would be a minor buff or nerf to a champion or item, and while the data says there was only a marginal impact, players perceive it to be monumental, and often the other way around.
Do you find that player concerns can conflict with How Things Really Are that often?
You guys gonna fix the Nunu Invisibility bug this Monday right?
u/RiotDavin – I’m a researcher without much work experience (went from undergrad straight into grad) and because of circumstances I don’t have very many connections anywhere at all. I’m also in a discipline that studies more social level problems than specifically user-centered work that’d be useful at Riot. I was wondering a few things:
1. Do you have any advice for someone like me who is looking into getting into games research but hasn’t been in UX-type research before?
2. Can we expect anything more from the Clairvoyance blog in the future?
3. I was wondering how Insights is received within the company by other employees.
Thanks!
u/RiotSafeandSecure what kind of work do you do on a day to day basis? How big is the team for cybersecurity for a company like riot and how is it set up (as in does the team work from a central office or are there people spread out across different locations and cities)?
I’m studying cybersecurity and am extremely curious to the actual working conditions and experience in a large game(s) company.
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What’s the funniest programmer moment you recall? Something like finding some long lost description of a variable among the older parts of the spaghetti code
How much job experience would you require to get a career, I have about 200 years of collective experience in video game character design, would that be enough?
Hey /u/RiotDavin as Director of Insights can you tell Blau to get off tiktok. it’d greatly enhance the player experience
u/RiotAryeila Pets were mentioned, so pay the cat/pet tax?
/u/RiotSafeandSecure
if i, hypothetically, wanted to get started in lifting, what do
please remember that i have the upper body strength of spongebob.
When will you buff euw server?
Hey is actually someone working on the client?
**MMR**
I am a new player, started in December. Why do us new player start with around Silver 2 MMR into ranked? I get constantly demolished and cannot contribute to wins. I am currently at 4W/7L. I always give my best and am happy for every win… But after wins, I always hope: “please do not let my MMR go up”. I do not want to go back to those games that are labelled “Silver 3 tier” on [op.gg](https://op.gg)… I cannot contribute much more there… but when I finally reach low bronze, I think ranked games could start to make fun.
Why was my Normal MMR not taken for ranked? Or if then climbing is not possible in the system, at least something like the average of my Normal MMR and the games Average MMR.
I often follow the [op.gg](https://op.gg) of other new players I face or play with in normals… And it seems new players need like 25 ranked games until your MMR adjusted to a level where you will not get wasted every game.
**Riot Games**
How is at working at Riot Games? How is the athmosphere? And how do you deal with constant criticism? Many people here complain about the balance of the game? I think it is very difficult to manage a game with about 100 million players that is in the focus of dozens of media and 100 million different opinions clash each other.
**Reports**
Is your team dealing with reports okay? I think they must feel constantly overworked. Like yesterday, in the after game Lobby, someone wrote “report Illaio. 2/6”. How is it when EVERYTHING gets reported? Can your system cope with it? Did the employees already lose faith on humanity? I also had a game we won and our mid said during and after the game “report jungle. Zero ganks”. Well, we won the game, got all or most drakes and our jungler had most kills. The amount of crazy reports must be endless. Sometimes it feels a part of the community wants League to be an elimination game that would end quicker than they would expect: All players of the losing game get permabanned as well as the two “worst” players of the winning team. And one week later, all would be over. Game dead.
I think the reporting system team needs a comforting team that reestablishes faith in humanity.
**Arcane**
When will it be released? And will it be on Netflix?
**Fun fact**
I actually came to League by music “Popstars”, “Awaken”, “Legends Never Die”, “Phoenix”, “Mortal Reminder” and “Light and Shadow” are simply too good. But “Popstars” introduced League music to me. Maybe, it could be interesting for you to know that there are actually people starting to play a game because of music videos.
Also, I think it would be cool if Hiroyuki Sawano would made the soundtrack for *Arcane*.
Does the custodian/janitor get a Riot account?
Was Aphelios a mistake
u/RiotToast will there be more events in the preseason (between AllStars and Spring Splits) that will have many regions play each other like IEMs?
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[u/dzareth](https://www.reddit.com/u/dzareth/), hope you’re the right person to ask this and the questions aren’t too invasive
1. What is your stance on the dynamic pricing some mobile games are using?
2. Ideally, do you believe microtransactions should be kept for FtP games only or should it be used (as it is right now) in AAA games?
3. Did the skins randomly dropped by chests affect LoL’s revenue? Was it a “short term loss with middle/long term gain” situation or did it have a negative effect on revenue and Riot is taking the financial hit for player retention?
4. What do you think would be better for the LoL franchise/brand?
1. LoL 2 after the end of LoL’s lifecycle; or,
2. Extending LoL’s lifecycle indefinitely with regular updates;
5. What sort of academic background do you need for this job? Do you think it is the driving factor behind the way you do your daily functions or it is “IRL experience” or a mix of both?
Are you hiring for remote player support? Lol.
In all seriousness my current call center is downsizing and I have to re-interview for my position soon. I have a reliable PC that can run League and a solid internet connection. 12+ years customer service experience.
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**A two part question to all of you:**
Of everything you personally have contributed while working at Riot Games, what is your proudest contribution and what is your most regrettable contribution?
@Rioters
Is olive garden a good first date?
Yall got jobs for BioChemists and Molecular Biologists like me?
Which jobs are the highest paying at riot, and how did you get there(through school, connections, working your way up?)
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u/RiotTechOps I was simply wondering what programming languages were used to create the game? And did you guys use a new programming for the new client compared to the old client?
Your intern website says that you take Zoology majors. What do you take us animal bois for and how do I apply?
I have a question for u/CloakOfTheBat
I’m a law student in Brazil and have a passion for gaming. Sometimes I think about specializing in the gaming industry as a lawyer sometime in the future.
What’s it like being a lawyer for a massive gaming company such as Riot Games? What are you in charge of?
u/superchloe idk if you’re the right person to ask. How do you feel about The Worlds prize pool compare to other MOBA game tourament, such as in Dota2 ?
what do you guys think of the company called rito ?
Are there ‘machine learning’ departments at Riot or anything related to it ? Always interesting to hear how different companies make use of ML.
u/RiotDavin
What are your thoughts about the discrepancy between MMR and climb progression during this start of the season?
Why does someone have to be able to consistently win D3 games in order to advance through platinum?
Group 2 starts now! Now featuring 100% more localization tech experts, internal tools developers, and ex-Starcraft-pro Lawyers
u/CloakOfTheBat I’m currently in law school atm and I’m morbidly curious. What kinda stuff do you deal with as one of Riot’s impeccable legal counsel? Is it just mundane stuff, like shutting down obvious copycat clients, illegal skin shops, and scripting websites with DMCAs, or do you run into more bizarre things what with League being a giant game that spans several different continents and countries?
Also, thoughts on Warcraft 3 Reforged?
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